this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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White stand up comics get free reign to drop racist dog whistles and if you criticize them on it they get all snippy with you. The most popular "genre" of white stand up comedy still seems to be "I went to a [insert culture here] restaurant and here are my disrespectful and stereotype enforcing hijinks" or even "I went to [insert COUNTRY here] and will now proceed to joke about their culture that's different from us."
Also stand up definitely seems to have an air of being attended by older generations who find mocking the suffering of younger generations funny. Things like participation trophies (which was a boomer idea by the way, the kids aren't planning school competitions) or terms like "snowflake" are still staple topics.
I have felt the same for a while. I have had to heavily rethink my relationship with standup comedy, because I think it can be such a powerful medium, but as I've gotten older, I recognize that comedy can reflect much of the bigotry and hatreds of their time.
It's obviously more nuanced than that, as comedy can also reflect joys, insights, and the general societal consciousness of the time.
With that said there are still a few stand up comedy that I can say I don't feel bad laughing at these days. So here's a short list that if you're so inclined, I'd take a look at:
I'd elaborate on each of them a bit, but I'd rather simply let their comedy speak for themselves.
EDIT: typo, wording
That list definitely tracks for a lemmy user.
Two of my all time favorites.
What is an ethical stand up?
I haven’t paid attention to stand up in a while. The best I can think of are still at the end of the day libs. Fat chance of finding a good historical materialist comedian eking out a living. Anyway, David Cross, Doug Stanhope, and Marc Maron come to mind. But I haven’t seen them in quite a while. For all I know they could have gone kancel kulture krazy, but I doubt it.
Now that I think about it, I’m scared to find out how they’ve navigated the genocide. Definitely stay the fuck away from Sarah Silverman; I know that much.